The results are in. In BARC The Data Fabric Survey 26, one of the most rigorous independent evaluations of data platform software in the world, Dremio earned 19 top rankings and 4 leader positions in the Data Platforms peer group. In feedback collected from Dremio users, 100% said they would recommend Dremio, 100% rated their project a success, and 100% reported improved productivity, better decision-making, and stronger trust in their data.
We are proud of these results. But more than a scorecard, they tell a story about what it takes to build a data platform that actually works for the way organizations operate today.
The foundation has to come first
Most organizations have a mandate to democratize insights with AI. Very few have the data foundation to act on it. Data sits in silos across dozens of systems. Governance is inconsistent. Semantic definitions are missing or misaligned. The ambition and investment are in place. The infrastructure is not.
AI agents have raised the stakes considerably. What was inconvenient for human analysts is now a hard stop for agents. Humans can file a ticket, ask a colleague, or navigate ambiguity. Agents work with what is in front of them. If the data is not accessible and understood, an agent cannot help.
Dremio was built for this moment. Unlike vendors who started with AI and are now scrambling to build a data layer underneath, Dremio started as a data platform and built AI on top. That sequence matters. In BARC The Data Fabric Survey 26, Dremio users rated Dremio top-ranked in its peer group for Technical Foundation, a composite KPI covering Performance, Reliability, Connectivity, Scalability, Ecosystem Integration, and Data Security and Privacy. Dremio scored 8.1 against a peer group average of 7.4, with users rating it above Databricks, Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric, Google BigQuery, and Amazon Redshift.
That foundation is what makes the Agentic Lakehouse possible.
Explore this interactive demo and see how Dremio's Intelligent Lakehouse enables Agentic AI
The promise of agentic AI is that every knowledge worker gets instant, accurate answers, regardless of which agent or LLM they prefer. Dremio connects to any agentic interface through one-click MCP integrations, and includes a built-in analyst agent for teams that want to start querying immediately with no SQL required.
But connectivity is only part of the answer. Agents also need context. Dremio's AI Semantic Layer spans the entire data estate, not just data inside the platform, mapping entities, relationships, and metrics so every agent draws from the same source of truth. Federated queries reach any source without ETL pipelines. Governed access via role-based and fine-grained access controls ensures the right people and agents see the right data, always.
In feedback from Dremio users in BARC The Data Fabric Survey 26, 100% reported improved data accessibility, 100% reported better data control, and 95% rated usability as excellent or good.
The Agentic Lakehouse only works if organizations can get into it quickly. In BARC The Data Fabric Survey 26, Dremio users rated Dremio top-ranked in its peer group for Ease of Use and Business Value overall. Dremio also ranks #1 across all products surveyed for Project Length, with the fastest time from purchase to initial rollout in the entire survey, scoring 8.8 against a peer group average of 6.9. 100% of users reported faster implementation of requirements.
This connects directly to a core Dremio principle: connect, query, go. No PhD required. And once you are running, Autonomous Reflections leverage your query patterns to accelerate queries automatically, without manual tuning or materialized views. The platform manages itself, so your team focuses on insights, not infrastructure.
Independent validation carries weight precisely because it comes from the people doing the work. What users cited most in BARC The Data Fabric Survey 26 was performance, open standards, and the ability to work across departments without vendor lock-in.
One user put it simply: "Lightning-fast query performance with data lakehouse architecture." — Data Steward, IT, 100-2,500 employees, BARC The Data Fabric Survey 26
Another pointed to what makes Dremio's open foundation distinctive: built on Apache Iceberg, Apache Polaris, and Apache Arrow, with no proprietary lock-in and comparable or better performance than closed alternatives. As co-creators of Apache Polaris and Apache Arrow, Dremio's open standards lineage is something no competitor can claim.
That is the Agentic Lakehouse in practice. Open, fast, governed, and built to last.
BARC The Data Fabric Survey 26 evaluated 19 products across 24 KPIs, drawing on 776 responses from data professionals worldwide. Download the Dremio highlights report to see the full results, including detailed KPI charts comparing Dremio against Snowflake, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, and others.
Further information can be found at: https://barc.com/reviews/data-tools/ and https://barc.com/research/the-data-fabric-survey/.
Deploy agentic analytics directly on Apache Iceberg data with no pipelines and no added overhead.
By unifying data from diverse sources, simplifying data operations, and providing powerful tools for data management, Dremio stands out as a comprehensive solution for modern data needs. Whether you are a data engineer, business analyst, or data scientist, harnessing the combined power of Dremio and Apache Iceberg will undoubtedly be a valuable asset in your data management toolkit.
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